Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Ticket To Ride
2. (They Long To Be) Close To You
3. We've Only Just Begun
4. For All We Know (From "Lovers And Other Strangers")
5. Rainy Days And Mondays
6. Superstar
7. Bless The Beasts And Children
8. Hurting Each Other
9. It's Going To Take Some Time
10. Goodbye To Love
11. Top Of The World
12. I Won't Last A Day Without You
13. Sing
14. Yesterday Once More
15. This Masquerade
16. Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
17. Please Mr. Postman
18. Desperado

Disc 2:

1. Only Yesterday
2. Solitaire
3. There's A Kind Of Hush
4. I Need To Be In Love
5. Sandy
6. All You Get From Love Is A Love Song
7. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day)
8. Sweet, Sweet Smile
9. I Believe You
10. Touch Me When We're Dancing
11. When It's Gone (It's Just Gone)
12. Those Good Old Dreams
13. Where Do I Go From Here
14. You're The One
15. Now
16. Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore
17. Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1799 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-20
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 133 minutes

Customer Reviews

Nostalgia for sure but timeless classics too!
The Carpenters are surely one of those romantic must haves in your record collection? If you want to buy a really good comprehensive collection of songs by the Carpenters on one CD, this one makes a bucket load of sense. Kind of hush, Interplanetary Craft, Solitaire, Yesterday once more,Close to you, Jambalaya and many more, they are all here. The Carpenters were always lovely to listen to, and won many fans at the time and later. The fact that they were so prolific too, was amazing. Most of the songs here were played to death and were often high up in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The fact that so many good ones are on here makes this album well worth buying.
Listening to them again brings back how amazing they were, and why we all loved them. Nostalgia for sure, but timeless classics too.

Maybe not ultimate but certainly close
This compilation presents 35 songs recorded by the Carpenters, all in chronological order of when they were released, beginning with Ticket to ride, their distinctive cover of the Beatles classic, and ending with Trying to get the feeling again, with was recorded in 1975 but forgotten about until it was eventually released on their covers album, Interpretations, and also released as a single. Neither of these two tracks were huge hits, but there are plenty of huge hits among the 33 tracks in between.

All the songs you'd expect to find are here. Close to you, We've only just begun, For all we know, Rainy days and Mondays, Hurting each other, Goodbye to love, Top of the world, I won't last a day without you, Yesterday once more and Only yesterday - every one of them is included along with many others. The strangest song that the Carpenters ever recorded, Calling occupants of interplanetary craft, is also here along with their only country hit, Sweet sweet smile.

The Carpenters had plenty of hits around the world, but of course they weren't always the same hits in each country. This being a British compilation, it inevitably includes Jambalaya, which peaked at twelve in Britain, where only six other Carpenters singles fared better. Jambalaya wasn't released as a single in America, presumably because the song had been a hit there for somebody else the year before.

This is a wonderful compilation containing all the essential Carpenters tracks, together with a few non-essentials that are nevertheless worth a listen.

The greatest voice
Karen Carpenter has to be just about the greatest voice in my lifetime(I am 47). That coupled with her brother Richard's harmonies and musical prowess makes this a must have album for any old or indeed new fans of this group. All the well known easy listening catchy favourites are on here including the sublime "superstar" and the melodic "only yesterday".Also the very different "calling occupants". Think of a Carpenters single hit and you will find it on this album which is why it is rightly called the ultimate collection. I often wonder what Karen could have achieved had her life not been tragically cut short. Carpenter fans should buy this album, you won't be dissappointed.